


How Bill Denbrough Ruined Everything

by orphan_account



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: All of this is subject to change, Alternate Universe - No Pennywise (IT), Alvin is still an abusive creepy asshole, Ben and Stan are best friends, Ben's parents are just the sweetest, Beverly is a cheerleader, F/F, F/M, Fuckboy Eddie, Georgie Denbrough Lives, He has a little sister but she lives with his mom, Like he is a baby, M/M, Mike is a football player, Modern Era, Mommy issues city here, Richie's parents are divorced, Soft Richie Tozier, Stan is a soccer player, Stan's dad is a helicopter parent, Stan's parents are also divorced, Still don't know whether Ben/Stan or Beverly will be endgame, Teenage Losers Club (IT), They're all 16 when it starts, This is my first fic I actually put work into so CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS URGED!!, We'll see I guess, but you don't have to
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:42:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22204291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: When Bill Denbrough, best friend of high school superstars Mike Hanlon and Beverly Marsh, tells a lifelong secret at a party, he accidentally flips Derry High School on it's side. But ninth grade comes to an end, and the next year is going to be even more wild than the one before, all because of a game of Truth or Dare, a misleading friendship, and a teenage boy with too much alcohol in his system.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Ben Hanscom/Stanley Uris, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Kudos: 12





	1. Introduction One

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, author here! My Twitter is @cataclysmbyers for anyone who might just happen to find this. The first two chapters aren't really chapters per se, they're more just back stories that might help understand the story better, but you don't need them to read it. This is in the tags, but I'll say it here too, please if you think of any constructive criticisms, let me know! This isn't my first fic but it is the first one I've actually properly somewhat mapped out and have plans for down the road.

**EDWARD KASPBRAK.**

Eddie Kaspbrak had, arguably, one of the worst upbringings a small town kid could have. His father died when he was in the sixth grade, leaving him and his mother with only the money he left behind and the shitty job his mother had at the time. The shit storm didn't end there, though, because instead of grieving properly and taking therapy, which Sonia didn't want to do, his mother coped by keeping Eddie small. It didn't take her very much time to have her, her son, and everyone in town convinced that Eddie was a walking miracle. She told them at first he had asthma, escalating to pneumonia and then cancer, anything to get sympathy for her poor, poor family, and the donations soon started pouring in. Sonia told the truth only to the one person she trusted most, her sister, Denise. Her mistake was doing it over text, because that meant Denise had proof of Sonia's crimes. After just a few years, and Sonia promising her sister that yes, this would end soon, she just needed a little more time, a little more money- Denise went to the police. So in the middle of Eddie's ninth grade year (he was _not_ thankful for the timing), his aunt got custody of him and he moved to yet another small town; Derry, Maine.

And Eddie was a likable kid. Even before all of it, he was, and he was lucky to come out of it the same (except for, you know, technically being an orphan and traumatized, no big deal), because Derry was tough. Like, from just his basic knowledge of the place after being in it for a few days, a lot tougher than his old school. So he tried to fix it, he was good at fixing it, and after chatting up a pretty girl in his Algebra class for a few days, and attempting to get the message across that he was interested in her multiple times, she gave him her number. 

Beverly Marsh happened to be one of the most perfect people he could've chosen to be his first DHS friend. Through her, he met Mike, and because he started hanging out with them, his popularity skyrocketed, in just maybe a week. It blew his mind. He was just trying to get a girl, he didn't know it would go this far, but he wasn't at all mad about it. Eddie sometimes heard the name Bill in passing conversation, and had the bright idea one day to ask who it was. He got a whole plethora of information, all of which didn't seem to connect right to him. He was only hearing one side of it, and though he wasn't aware, not even an entirely truthful side of it. Eddie never questioned it; he didn't consider it any more his business than anyone else who moved to Derry after it happened.

Quickly, Eddie earned himself a sort of fuckboy reputation (which really, he took as a compliment) for thinking someone was cute, having a thing for them for maybe two weeks at the most (but the average was more around four days), and then losing interest, the cycle repeating itself. He couldn't help it, the people at Derry were just so much more attractive than what he was used to. And Eddie didn't really have to come out like he did at his old school, because when he moved, he was already openly bisexual, and though some were surprised now and then at the start, people talk and gossip goes around. Yeah, he got shit for it every once in a while, but he was kinda the token bi kid for DHS (he could never thank Mike and Beverly enough for their role in that), and he was okay with it. As uncomfortable as it could be at times, he knew about Henry Bowers, and if being that kid kept him away, Eddie would take place in political arguments every day if he had to (realistically, though, it was only about twice a week).

Ninth grade passed, summer happened (and some bad choices in there Eddie would prefer to forget), and tenth grade came. It felt like yesterday, he was just a kid caught up in custody bullshit. He had warmed up to his aunt (she got married at the beginning of summer, and surprisingly, her husband was pretty cool; not the cranky, controversial middle aged man Eddie was expecting) and he felt like a normal Derry kid. After deliberating with Mike, he decided he was going to take theatre, because fuck it- Why not? He knew a few theatre kids, and they seemed nice. Really, he just wanted some new friends (he was thankful for the popularity but kind of sick of seeing the same boring old faces all the time) and if a few people from it were nice, he could imagine maybe most of them were. How harmful could it be? 

**RICHARD TOZIER.**

Richie never really was the favorite friend. He knew that, and he was okay with that. He was used to drifting away from people just when they started to really matter to him (thanks, parents, for not teaching the valuable lesson on How To Build Long-Lasting & Meaningful Friendships), but even after they were gone, it was nice to occasionally hear about them. And when he heard about Bill Denbrough's little Mike situation, it boggled his mind so bad, he forgot how to react. Not because Bill liked Mike- Richie kinda knew that since middle school. It was never said explicitly (unless you count the Valentine's Day note that Bill gave him in the sixth grade and later wrote off as a prank), but it was something he always silently understood. What was so hard for him to believe, actually, was how long it took for people to catch on about Bill's crush. Seriously. How could he have been the only one that noticed? Richie hadn't even talked to the damn guy in two years. It was just painful. 

About a month after things (kinda) calmed down, Richie got a message from him on Instagram:

'hey can we talk please'

'sure dude :)'

And Bill just let off everything that had been building up inside him, and Richie knew.. The guy was really going through it. And he couldn't just let him do it on his own. Bill was sensitive. He was porcelain. Even though Bill hadn't talked to him in so long, could Richie really blame him? It wasn't even a case where they both blew up on each other, and held a grudge for so long they could never look at one another again. It was just Richie getting nervous about love, even platonically, and fleeing. So he let himself be Bill's therapist for a little while, and he promised himself he wouldn't let it go so far as for them to call the other a friend again, he wouldn't, he wouldn't-

But he did, and then they were close friends, and then they were besties, and Richie loved it. He'd forgotten how good it felt to call someone that. It's nice to have a friend. He knew, really, it couldn't last long, but Richie had reached the mentality of "might as well enjoy it while it lasts". Bill was his escape from reality; he could go to his house and just sit in silence and it made everything, even if just for a little bit, feel better. He was someone Richie was comfortable enough with to share stuff like ice cream sundaes and be able to ignore the long stares because, yeah, this is two teenage dudes sharing a banana split. You got a problem with it? Take it up with us.

They had dumb slumber parties where they danced and sang karaoke to songs they'd be embarrassed to even listen to with other people. Georgie even started to feel like a little brother to Richie. The Denbroughs were his second family. They were paradise. If Richie had to go to a cold, lonely house (home wasn't an appropriate word) of just him and his father, it was okay. He was okay. Finally, he felt okay.

**STANLEY URIS.**

Stan tried hard to understand middle school drama. Often, he failed, but he really did try. It just felt stupid to him, it all was "he said, she said" bullshit. That's what it seemed like. Then he got into Derry High School and befriended the sweet new kid from his Creative Writing class, and it got ugly _fast_. In a few months, it went from something he didn't think he'd ever have to deal with, to something his best friend had to deal with on a daily basis- Petty, seventh grade worthy crap. It was exhausting, but thankfully, usually the same people. Stan learned pretty fast that Henry Bowers had about three fat jokes under his belt before having to resort to homophobic slurs (which didn't even make sense to Stan, it was so off topic) and sometimes a, "fuck you, losers!" Stan stood up for Ben, not only because they were friends (he'd stand up for him even if they weren't so close), but because he knew Ben had never done anything to Bowers or his stupid friends. It was sad, really, how fucked up in the head and bored they were to continue to to this every day. Ben not once insulted them back. He sat calmly, drinking his water, minding his own business. Stan found something admirable about that. 

In the beginning of the year, when they'd first met, Stan tried out for the soccer team, just to see where it would go, and he joined almost immediately after. He'd never made a decision that paid off so well before. He spent about two and a half hours LESS at home for most of the week, it was great. Usually, only an hour of it was actual soccer practice, him spending the rest of it with Ben which was also just so great. Ben had the coolest parents ever, Stan was beginning to think they were really becoming attached to him. They trusted him, he never had to beg for permission to take Ben maybe to the skating rink, or to go laser tag, or just to the park to walk around, they always said yes. They didn't try to supervise like Stan's helicopter father would if he knew where they were going, and they even let him violate Ben's curfew sometimes on the weekends (which was a loose ten at night). 

Stan wished he was born to them instead of his parents. Of course, love thy father and all that, but did that really apply when thy father doth be a fucking prick? Stan felt like he couldn't breathe wrong around him, he had to be the perfect child and anything less was downright sinful. He couldn't make less than a 99 grade or he was grounded. He couldn't get written up (or, God forbid, detention) for dumb things and laugh it off like the silly thing it was. Stan felt controlled, and he didn't know if his father knew that or not, but hell if he was going to say something about it. Who knew how he would react? Probably not even him!

Ben called him brave all the time, and he couldn't see why anyone would think that. He was pathetic, he was a wimp. He couldn't even stand up to his own father. He couldn't even leave a religion he felt trapped in because of his upbringing. At least Ben had the guts to tell his parents he didn't feel like he was a Catholic (which, you guessed, they accepted with open arms). Ben was the brave one. Not him.

**BENJAMIN HANSCOM.**

Some people might have seen Ben and Stan as quite the unlikely pair. Ben didn't think so. He finally found the perfect friend- Stan defended him, but he was never very aggressive; he wasn't too distant or too clingy; they hung out all the time.. Most importantly, his parents absolutely _adored_ Stan. Even when he wasn't around, his mother and father would just rave on how well behaved Stan was, what a good role model Stan was for him, and was Stan ever going to bring a girl over with him? Oh, you don't know? That's really quite unfortunate. 

They meant well.

Watching Stan's practices actually got Ben into professional soccer, which he would NEVER admit to him, because he would never live it down.

Sometimes, Ben believed really the only reason Bowers kept coming back every day was because they enjoyed seeing Stan, a neutral, kind-hearted soul, absolutely lose it and get so frustrated his ears turned red. They certainly weren't getting the reaction they wanted out of Ben, anyway. He let it happen, though. It was comforting to know he had someone on his side (as self-centered as he knew it was), and besides that, the insults stopped getting to him a long time ago. Like, even before ninth grade. Ben always had been big, his parents were too (though, admittedly, he personally thought they carried it better), and it just wasn't a big deal anymore. Maybe it might've hurt him in the fifth grade. Ben knew better now, he was more mature- He didn't need Henry Bowers' respect, of all people, to know he was valid, and he was loved. He had Stan and his family for that.

Lately, his mind had been a bit preoccupied with a particular red headed cheerleader, though. Stan sometimes would tell him his infatuation with Beverly Marsh was cute, or endearing, fun to watch. He had Creative Writing and Social Studies with her, which happened to actually be his first and last classes of the day. But he really didn't need to have any classes with her to know who she was, because, well.. She was Beverly Marsh! Ben definitely wasn't the only one looking at her, but he felt that maybe he was the only one who noticed the way her cheeks reddened when she was called on unexpectedly, or how she let her hair fall in her face when she went to pick up her things from underneath her desk and how effortlessly beautiful it was. He was a little obsessed, sure. And no, he'd never had a real conversation with her. Sometimes she'd bump into him in the hallway and apologize, or ask to borrow a pencil, or for the time, or something dumb and pointless that Ben would study and mess himself up over for days on end. Perhaps Stan had a point about it being fun to watch; Ben once told him about how this one week she borrowed his highlighter every day in a row, and that had to mean something, right? Like he was the light of her day or something? And Stan had to bring him back down to Earth. No, Ben, you guys just used highlighters pretty often that week, and she didn't have one, and after the first day, she knew you had one she could use. Ben really needed that humbling sometimes.

It was fine for now. Ben was content writing her love letters that she'd never read.


	2. Introduction Two

**BEVERLY MARSH.**

Beverly had never been, in her entire life, an ill-intentioned person. In fact, if you had asked one of her close friends to describe her, they'd probably tell you she was kind, loyal, understanding, emotional, a real girl to count on in tough times. Some people hear this, and confuse her as someone they can walk on. It's an important distinction to make; Beverly takes shit from no one. Bill Denbrough learned that the hard way.

Though she was someone who was in the middle of the drama herself, even she never knew the whole thing (she was blissfully unaware that she didn't- Mike told her that Bill apologized and left it at that), simply believing that yes, Bill was a filthy liar and a cheater, and if any girl gave him the time again, she'd pray for her. She still loved him for a long time, though. Getting over a two-year long relationship isn't easy for anyone. She even thought about getting with the cute boy in her Algebra class. It would've been so easy, actually. He really liked her, and had no issue making it clear, which she liked. The way his curls hung in his face, the little freckles around his nose..

Mike concluded that _no_ , she most definitely should not get into another relationship so soon after Bill. She should wait until she was one hundred percent positive that it wasn't for selfish purposes, and instead, being built on, I dunno, actually being interested in the person. She did try to argue that she was interested in this boy, but Mike didn't think it was a good idea, and if she knew anything about him, it was that he was miles wiser than her.

So they stayed as just friends. The boy's name was Eddie Kaspbrak, and he'd moved to Derry from some place she'd never heard of in Indiana, apparently because his mother died. He didn't seem too hung up about the dead mother part, but Beverly didn't interrogate the poor kid over it, because people process death of a family member in different ways (of course, she didn't know it wasn't really a strange grieving process) and who was she to judge? Eddie was fun, and chaotic, and she really, really wanted to replace Bill so she could move on already. She added Eddie and Mike to a group chat, and her wishes came true- They got along amazing, and Mike seemed pretty eager to find a new Bill too, and it worked. Thank God it worked.

Beverly expected Eddie to be the it-kid for a week, maybe even a couple, but man, he made a mark. He was something Derry High School really hadn't seen before, inspired a lot of LGBT kids (mostly in their grade) to come out. He just didn't care. She once watched a kid being homophobic to him (the normal stuff, you're going to hell, et cetera) say something in his rant along the lines of "Have you ever tried a girl before," and Eddie told him to go suck a dick and come back to him.

Sometimes Beverly wondered what would've happened if Bill hadn't done what he did- Sure, it hurt, but what would've Eddie been then?

**MICHAEL HANLON.**

Sometimes, Mike just really didn't want to play football anymore- Not because he didn't enjoy it, he did. Being the small town star quarterback cliché was just so exhausting. He wasn't an asshole like some of the players his father went to school with (his father credited himself for that, which Mike thought was fair), and he regretted it at times.

He was raised on his parents' farm, but sent to daycare in the afternoons until he went to kindergarten, and that was how long he knew Bill Denbrough. They grew up together, literally, and they were pretty much inseparable. It was something that their families bonded over when they were children, because aw, look at the little boys! The Hanlons and Denbroughs started having holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving together, their sons being the glue holding them together. Then Bill met Beverly Marsh in the fifth grade, and she kinda changed their lives.

The Marshes didn't do like their families did, but Beverly gladly tagged along to the events, and they all welcomed her, because it was a girl, oh my god, I wonder which one is gonna end up with her? And spoiler alert: It was Bill.

Mike didn't really know why they started dating- Yeah, Beverly did like him for like, a really long time, but he'd never heard a peep from Bill about the feelings being reciprocated. But seventh grade Christmas, Bill's card to her had "WILL YOU PLEASE BE MY GIRLFRIEND?" in Sharpie, and underneath, in pencil, "if you're not convinced i left thirty bucks in here so you know i'm the real deal." And yeah, he did. She said yes, obviously, and everyone in the room celebrated, but Bill just didn't seem as excited about it as Mike thought he should've been.

Later that night, after they had to take Beverly home (in her words, "My dad would never let me stay the night with a boy, especially not one I'm the girlfriend of!"), Mike asked him how long he'd liked Beverly. Bill told him, does it matter? I'm a boy and she's a girl.

Ninth grade started off wild. What Mike thought was just going to be another fun school year with his squad actually ended up tearing them apart. Mike was still, other than Bill, the only one who knew all of it. It started off at a dumb party Bill went to about two weeks after school started, a party with alcohol (which Mike advised him endlessly against, and if the idiot had listened, he wouldn't have gotten himself into this mess in the first place), a party where Bill played Truth or Dare.

Bill chose Truth one time someone picked him, and he was asked, are you straight or not? To which he replied very tipsily, nope. I'm gay as fuck. And you can allll blame Mike Hanlon for it. It was pretty clear he wasn't joking, either.

And of course it got out- Of course it did. And by the time it got to Beverly, it had devolved from "Bill Denbrough is gay and he has a crush on Mike Hanlon, and he told us so at the party last weekend" to "Bill Denbrough had sex with a guy as a dare at the party last weekend". Beverly came to Mike after school ended, and she was devastated. Why wouldn't she be? She was a sobbing mess, and she sat on the bench in Mike's arms for nearly an hour. He was all she had after Bill.

After almost a month of, on occasion, breaking down in the middle of the day, and being off her game when it came to schoolwork completely, and having Bill blocked on everything she could block him on, she asked Mike if maybe he could officially break it off between the two of them for her? Because she just really couldn't look him in the eye yet, and surely he got it. And no, he didn't get it. Why did they have to "make it official" or whatever, anyway? If Mike was dating someone and they didn't talk to him for that long, he'd think it would be safe to assume they were done for (or maybe dead). Bill wasn't stupid, well, maybe sometimes, but he had common sense. But fine, he would do it. 

When Mike did confront Bill, he got a million apologies, which he wasn't expecting- Like, what did he do? And then he asked just that, and Bill asked, what do you mean? I like you.

And just like that, it all clicked.

And Bill stood there, and he poured his heart out to Mike, and no, no, he didn't have sex with anyone, he was just dumb and gay and he liked Mike and it just came out (literally). Mike felt so bad for him. But there was nothing he could say except I'm sorry, I'm straight, and even if I wasn't, I could never do that to Beverly. Bill knew that.

Bill had just one request, and it was that Mike didn't tell Beverly about all of that, and that if he knew someone else was going to, if he could maybe stop them from doing the same. Mike didn't really know where it was coming from, but he agreed to it, because Bill was brave enough to tell him he liked him for nine years? It's a lot, and Mike could never build up the courage to do the same if it were him. 

He really did miss Bill. He missed Bill's laugh, because it was what Mike looked for after telling a joke, and when Bill left, he never knew if anything really did land or not; he missed the way Bill stuck his tongue out just a little bit when he was really trying to focus on something; he _really_ missed the Denbroughs.

He was never going to get that connection back. He searched for it in Beverly, and later, Eddie, but he never found it again.

**WILLIAM DENBROUGH.**

  
Bill often blamed a lot of things on himself that weren't entirely his fault. But then again, was it really anyone's fault that Mike Hanlon was just.. Made like that? (repressed childhood crushes for the win!) Bill should've never expected all of the people at the party to keep their mouths shut, to be fair, they were teenagers- But maybe two or three would've been nice. Instead, every single one blabbed the Monday right after. It took no longer than five minutes in the building before someone asked Bill, "oh my god, you're queer?" and he high-tailed it the fuck out of there.

It actually somewhat worked out in his favor. In a bizarre real life game of Telephone, by the time it got to his girlfriend, it turned into "Bill cheated on Beverly with a boy" instead of "Bill is gay and has a huge fucking crush on Mike," so he was grateful for that. Beverly finding out he had been lying to her about not only his identity but about loving her for years would've been so much worse than her thinking he cheated on her once.

Beverly was furious and Bill understood. She talked shit about him to the cheerleading squad (that didn't even really like her anyway, Bill knew) and yeah, he understood. She didn't talk to him for more than three weeks, and he still understood. Then Beverly sent Mike to talk to him for her, and he didn't understand that shit at all. She was never one to shy away from confrontational situations, so what the fuck was this? Probably poor Mike being her emotional support again (God, the fact that he felt worse for him than Beverly in all this made him feel pathetic).

Bill told Mike everything. He told Mike about the truth question, and how he answered, and that yes, it was true, Bill was on the verge of being in love with the guy, and he wanted to cry but he couldn't bring himself to do it in front of Mike, and it felt like a scene from a movie, Bill was really reaching him-

But then it was real life, and it was all crashing down on him, and of course Mike was straight. The odds were kind of against him on this one.

So from that point forward, he was cut out of their lives, now only watching from the sidelines like everyone else. But honestly, it was honestly just so freeing and grounding to be a normal person with normal problems again. Yeah, the homophobia was pretty shit, but it was tenfold better than, "Bill? I think I'm having a serious crisis. Which one of these ten dresses do I wear to homecoming?"

He reconnected with an old childhood friend, Richie, by reaching out to him and just venting everything to him in a night. Bill thought it was going to be a one-time thing, but thank God it wasn't. If Bill was honest, he had no idea why he and Richie had fallen off (if he had thought hard enough, he probably could figure out it was because he was climbing up the social ladder and Richie simply wasn't), because holy shit, Richie was like, the most chill person. Ever.

Sometimes Richie spoke to Bill and just somehow knew exactly how he was feeling, at any given point in time. He just got Bill like that. It was soothing. It really felt like Richie might know him forever.


End file.
